I have always been an advocate for wearing helmets when doing any outdoors sport. As many of you know, the University of Utah is a steep and hilly campus with lots of obstacles. Last academic year I witnessed several cyclists on campus crash resulting in bloody gashes on their heads and apparent concussions. None of these cyclists were wearing helmets. I wanted to examine in depth the potential reasons why these people were not wearing helmets and how to change the overall public image of helmets.
A common complaint of helmets that I always hear is "they are so inconvenient and look stupid." Although I would have to agree that helmets definitely are not aesthetically pleasing, the small amount of time spent wearing them is minuscule to the amount of time potentially spent in intensive care, in a comatose state or living with neuromuscular disfunction. In my opinion, the sacrifice of aesthetics becomes apparent when you are able to continue doing the activities you love even after intense accidents happen.
The nature of the word accident means just that; unpredictability. In almost every accident, the person involved is going about their daily life when some unforeseen event occurs causing physical, emotional or mental harm. In terms of biking this could be a stray dog, a patch of unplowed snow, a stick or even an oil spot that could potentially take even the most experienced cyclist down. To be realistic, no one goes about their day thinking, "today I will crash after my front wheel slips on a piece of gravel!"
Ultimately I have made the commitment to wear a helmet whenever I am biking or skiing to reduce the chance of traumatic brain injury in the event of an accident. Some tips I would give to those interested include always keeping a helmet in your ski bag or on your bike and wearing it frequently. If your helmet is nearby when you are preparing to hit the slopes or when you are hopping on your bike it is much easier to commit to wearing it. After days of wearing a helmet it begins to feel "unnatural" not to wear one.
Hope this helped! Let me know your opinion on helmet use.
